NORRISTOWN — Many people consider Memorial Day Weekend as the unofficial kickoff of summer and it’s always a big weekend for the Elmwood Park Zoo. This weekend, though, the zoo is taking “big” to new heights when the two newest residents of the zoo will be introduced to the public.

Two male giraffes, 3-year-old Dhoruba and 10-month-old Jukuu, will make their official debuts during a public celebration over the weekend.

The celebration will take place on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. and will include musical performances from a group called Voices of Africa, storytelling, and crafts, all of which is included with the cost of admission.

“This whole event is to celebrate the giraffes and also to celebrate the zoo’s expansion in scope,” explained Eric Donovan, the director of guest services for the zoo.

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The giraffes mark the first time that the zoo has housed animals that reside on continents other than the Americas and the staff is hopeful that the zoo will be able to bring in even more animals from around the world.

“We’ve talked about it for a number of years, to not restrict ourselves,” said Dave Wood, curator for the Elmwood Park Zoo. “It was a perfect opportunity for us.”

As soon as the zoo got confirmation on the giraffes, which are on loan from Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Mich. and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colo., respectively, the staff had to get to work making renovations on a vacant exhibit in order to accommodate the two bulls.

“We needed to replace a lot of the fencing, making it a little taller,” Wood explained. “We also had to make a holding area that was appropriate for a giraffe.”

The final result of the renovation is an exhibit where guests can view the giraffes at ground level while also having the ability to inspect the animals at eye-level from a specially-constructed upper deck. Al Zone, the executive director for the zoo, described the final exhibit as “one of the best I have ever seen.”

While having a nice face-to-face with Dhoruba and Jukuu on the upper deck, guests will also have the opportunity to feed them by reserving a time slot for $5 at a kiosk next to the exhibit.

“These giraffes are really friendly,” said Donovan.

“Both had feeding decks (at their home zoos) and they’re used to interacting with people,” Wood explained.

Because the zoo has only ever housed animals from North and South America, the staff had to be trained on how to safely care for the giraffes. Luckily, prior to coming to Norristown, Wood had worked with the animals for more than two decades at another zoo, so he was able to train and advise the other employees.

“Giraffes can be very dangerous,” he said seriously before joking “I didn’t want to lose a lot of staff.”

The giraffes were delivered to the zoo on May 15 so that the pair would have a chance to get acclimated to each other and to their surroundings before their big days. However, because of their height, the secret got out pretty quickly. And based on the response so far, the public could not be more excited.

“We stopped traffic unloading these giraffe and people are stopping by day and night to try and see them,” said Wood.

“The other day, our marketing director posted a picture of the giraffes on Facebook and immediately that got 100 ‘likes’ in a matter of a few minutes,” said Donovan.

While the “secret” of the giraffes may have gotten out already, Zone does not seem to mind and is excited to see the public’s reaction.